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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Nicholas Potter of Salem, Massachusetts

Nicholas Potter of Salem penned his will on 10 August 1677. He had a large posterity and there is much information on him and his descendants within the 3000 pages of Potter Profiles.

In his will, Nicholas mentions his his "sonn" Robert and daughter Elizabeth (Newall), which were children by his first wife, and then his six children by his "last wife:" Samuel, Benjamin, Sarah, Mary (Elson), Hannah, and Bethiah (Witt). He also mentions his "brothers," Bartholomew Gidney and Eleazer Gidney, who were (I think) brothers of his first wife, who was Mary Gedney.

Nicholas was born circa 1604 in England and settled in Lynn, MA, as early as 1638 and later removed to Salem where he died on 18 October 1677. He married (1) Emma Knight and had Elizabeth (who married Thomas Newhall) and Robert who married Ruth Driver. He married (2) Alice Weeks but she died soon and they had no children. He married (3) Mary Gedney.

In my Potter Profiles, I designated this particular branch of Potters to be Branch 7. His will was transcribed and submitted by Dawna Lund, and was published in Profiles, Volume 5, 1985. She said it came from The Probate Records of Essex County, Vol. 3, published in 1916 by the Essex Institute.